Plant Biology Graduate Student Spotlights

2017

Vinh N. Pham

I am a 4th year graduate student from Dr. Enamul Huq’s Lab. I am interested in how plants sense, interpret and respond to environmental light conditions. Using a combination of biochemical, genetic, molecular and functional genomic approaches, I am trying to understand the regulatory mechanisms of key negative regulators in light signal transduction in Arabidopsis. In addition, I am also fascinated by computational biology for the analysis of transcriptomic changes in order to understand the light-triggered gene expression network.

2015

Oscar M. Vargas

I am interested in spatio-temporal patterns of plant evolution in the Andes cordillera of South America. Currently, I am working with the genus Diplostephium (Compositae), which comprises a rapid radiation with more than a hundred species distributed from Venezuela to northern Chile. My research focuses on the taxonomy, phylogeny, anatomy, and biogeography of the genus. I am trying to elucidate Diplostephium's rate of speciation, biogeography, time of colonization to the paramo, and key adaptations.